A bit of History…

Ecotopia Biketour is for anyone interested in do-it-yourself, environmentalism, activism, community life and experiential learning, from cultures, from challenges, and from each other. But ultimately, it is whatever you make of it! You are the Biketour!So how did it all begin? The first Ecotopia Gathering, (an ecological utopian festival village which happened every year in a different part of Europe, till 2008 interruption) was held in 1989 in Cologne. The Biketour didn’t exist at that time, so many participants came by bus. Some felt very uncomfortable with their unecological way of travelling to such a special place. They started looking for an alternative and (can you believe it?) they came to the conclusion that the bike is still the most ecological method of transport. Slow enough to connect with nature but fast enough to feel you really are travelling every day. After 2008, the biketour crowd decided to continue as a project itself, “It’s not the destination that’s important, it’s the Journey”. A bit of Biketour history ….

Here you can see graphically where the Biketour has travelled (approximately) on the past 27 tours (until 2017) and where the Ecotopia Gatherings have taken place:

1990: “Take a bike to Ecotopia (take a car to hell)”

The first biketour connected with ecotopia, i. e. the first Ecotopia-Biketour took place in the year 1990. It started with the UNSAID-festival in Bergen (Norway) in the middle of May 1990. And it ended two and a half months later in the beginning of August 1990 in Bugac-puszta in Hungary. Route: Bergen (Start 16. 5. 1990) – Oslo – Göteborg – Malmö – Kobenhavn – Rödby – Puttgarden – Blekendorf – Lübeck – Hamburg – Hannover- Göttingen – Kassel – Erfurt – Bamberg – Regenburg – Passau – Linz – Wien – Bratislava – Budapest – Ecotopia (Bugac-puszta, 1. 8. 1990). The whole distance was about 3300 km! Conclusion: long biketours starting quite early in the year are possible! Note: All this was possible without email, Internet and mobile phones!!! Some highlights of this biketour: there was a biketour-booklet with 84 pages and partly in two languages (English and German)… Further comments: this biketour was very well organised, everything was prepared, including the food, which was cooked by Rampenplan. This Dutch kitchen-collective was accompanying the biketour with a big bus (the famous dragonbus) and providing three meals every day. So life was really easy, but it was no 100% biketour, because of this bus. There were really too many people at least at this part, we were about 125 people!!! There were discussions in at least 4 languages and it was impossible to share all informations with everybody. After Bratislava the number of participants decreased below 100 people.

2008

2009: Feel the Heat!

We started in Serbia and took a train to Macedonia, from where we cycled through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzgovina to Jagnjedovec, Croatia. See btwiki/Biketour 2009 for the plans made for the route. In the end, it was about 2400km.

2010: Climate Justice!

We started in northern Yorkshire, England on 26 June, cycling via Wales, crossing the English channel at Portsmouth, through France, Belgium & the Netherlands, to Cologne, Germany. More on Biketour 2010

2011: Sustainable Agriculture And Food Sovereignty

2012: Towards Degrowth!

In summer 2012 Ecotopia Biketour cycled through Catalunya, France and Italy and the project was hosted by Research and Degrowth. The theme was “towards degrowth” – challenging the damaging growth mentality of capitalism which currently dominates and overlooks real social and environmental values. More on Biketour 2012

2013: Beyond Borders!

In 2013, Ecotopia Biketour cycled from Berlin in Germany to Cluj in Romania. The collective explored issues around real and conceptual borders on the way. See more on Biketour 2013

2014: Bottom Up! Sovereignty vs. Exploitation

In 2014, the Biketour went far south, passing through two countries where the Biketour had never been: Kosovo and Greece on its winding way from Sofia to Athens. En route we exchanged with collectives in social centres and squats and visited several places where people are trying to find ways of sustainable living in the countryside, often motivated by the economic crisis in the Southern Balkans. Find all the detailed info here on this site.

2015: Scandinavia

We started at Makvärket close to Copenhagen and cycled for 3 months via Copenhagen, Malmö, Göteborg, Oslo, Stockholm, Turku and Tampere to Helsinki. We dumpster-dived so much that we spent only around 0.50 € per person per day on food. A natural highlight was the Åland archipelago, where we even saw the northern lights. Among the projects on the way were several big social centres, some permaculture communities, an alternative school, some anti-mining protest groups, and even an alternative bank. Read more here.

2016: Out of Trash

This year the Biketour started in Warsaw, found its way to cross the Belarusian border with a lot of struggles, then went through Lithuania, joining the Sapfo Queer Fest. Reaching the delta of Nemunas river we took a ferry to the Curonian Spit and cycled along the Baltic Sea to Latvia. The tour went on to Estonia and finished in Tallinn. More about the Biketour 2016 on the blog and here.

2017: Vélo Anarchademy

We cycled from Strasbourg via Nancy (Vélorution Universelle DIY bike festival) to Bure (anti-nuclear waste occupation), then back into Germany, passed by Freiburg, crossed Switzerland visiting Orbe (collective farm) and Lausanne (bike kitchen and squats), then went on back to France to Grenoble and Valence. Then we met with another bike tour, AlterTour, and spent 3 days together with them. After we reached the sea in Montpellier, cycled along it for a while, and then went back into the hills to a community called Rocalet. After a ride through the Corbières mountains to Perpignan, we crossed into Catalunya at the degrowth community Can Decreix. In Catalunya we visited several communities on the country side and stayed in Barcelona for 4 days at Can Masdeu, also visiting the World Carfree Day. The tour ended in a small town Valls, where at the time the independence referendum happened and some of us joined the blockades against the Spanish police. Find more information on the Blog and the route page.